Summer and barbecue go together like Bank Holidays and rain. One naturally follows the other, but even better is a summer filled with American-style barbecue, a world away from a typical suburban garden grill topped with bangers and burgers. The low ‘n’ slow method of smoking meat produces such sublime results, that it has become …
With lockdown, I have fewer respites from the amateurish tedium of my own cooking. It was this, combined with the need to run errands for an ill dining companion, that led me to pucker up for a cheeky Nando’s for the first time in years. At the same time, the existence of a notable competitor in the form of Roosters Piri Piri, a franchised chain with branches in London as well as farther afield, piqued my curiosity. There’s only one thing for it – a takeaway piri piri chicken-and-chips comparison.
Kauboi Ramen is an eatery seemingly custom-made to muddy the argumentative waters swirling around authenticity. Set inside the compact bar area for Texas Joe’s, Kauboi Ramen serves up Japanese-style ramen noodle soups – but with Texan-style barbecued meats instead of the usual chashu pork.
Despite its liberal use of fairy lights, exposed brickwork and repurposed shipping containers, Vinegar Yard isn’t the plucky bohemian operation you might think it is.
No, not that Georgia – the other one Updated 24/03/2020 – corrected mislabelled/misidentified dish At the time of writing, the entirety of London’s restaurant industry – and indeed the UK’s – has entered a period of intense uncertainty. The Covid-19 coronavirus crisis has forced the shutdown of literally every sit-down restaurant in the capital (along …
This six-month residency needs to become permanent We all have friends that say the stupidest, most regrettable things. Jaw-dropping comments that almost make you regret befriending them in the first place. In the case of one of my dining companions, his self-professed dislike for pork and ‘samey Asian food’ is a black mark against an …
This crab dinner has legs, but it’s running before it can walk The potential of Instagram to power and propel businesses from mere photographic ideas into actual money making businesses is well known. It’s one thing to read about it though and quite to another to sit in a restaurant that has its origins in …
Cornwall has an outsized reputation for high quality produce, but hiking the South West Coastal Path from St Ives to Falmouth isn’t necessarily the best way to appreciate its bounty. Continue reading
Everest Curry King is as much a takeaway as it is a caff, even in the halcyon days before the lockdown. Curiously though, the takeaway menu can differ dramatically from the sit-down menu. Continue reading
‘What’s an Italian steakhouse?!’ The answer, of course, is a restaurant that serves steak cut from Italian cows. It’s a revealing response – pasta, pizza and pesto cast such a shadow over the perception of Italian food in our collective imagination, that anything else is literally inconceivable. If goldfish really do have a memory of just three seconds, then our gestalt intelligence is seemingly limited to just three things per subject. Continue reading
The entire menu reviewed starting with all the vegetarian and vegan dishes The surprising thing about Chuku’s, to me at least, isn’t that this Tottenham restaurant serves Nigerian food. Although comparatively uncommon, Nigerian food isn’t too hard to find in London’s southeastern suburbs from Nigerian restaurants to (broadly) pan-West African takeaways. But those eateries not … Continue reading
Bring your loved ones – and even your frenemies – to this Thornton Heath restaurant We all, at some point or another, have to break bread with people that we’d rather spend less time with – not more. Although there’s always the distant hope that it’s *this* meal that will finally help put that fractured … Continue reading
The best thing about Flat Iron Square isn’t the street food stalls I’m sometimes asked how I pick which restaurants to review. The number and range of possible criteria is large and diverse, respectively. Some of the most important is that a restaurant has to be interesting and it should be in some way indicative … Continue reading
Kimchi, grilled bulgogi and chilled noodles in east Berkshire The very question of whether Reading is a part of London would’ve been ridiculous just a few short years ago. This quasi-commuter town in east Berkshire, which has always been within easy reach of the capital, is slowly being drawn closer into the Big Smoke’s orbit … Continue reading
What’s the point of all this? Fine dining used to be so easy to identify. The opulently decorated dining rooms, the tablecloths, the suited and booted staff – and that was just the physical environment, never mind the hushed aura. Then there was the food, itself a world apart from what most of us ate … Continue reading
Tacos with views over London, but it’s barely a feast for the eyes Many major cities across the world have restaurants perched on top of tall buildings – quite often rotating ones. Berlin has the TV Tower, while Munich is graced with Olympia Tower and the CN Tower looms over Toronto. However, the rule of … Continue reading
Big issues on small plates from a Salt Yard alumnus Volta do Mar is an unusual restaurant in more ways than one. Founded by an alumnus from the storied yet troubled Salt Yard group, Volta do Mar’s Portuguese-themed menu has influences from all over the former Portuguese empire – or the Lusosphere if you prefer. … Continue reading
